Girl finds her 15 brothers and sisters on Facebook!

London, August 25 (ANI): A teenaged girl has been reunited with her parents and 15 brothers and sisters, thanks to popular social networking website Facebook.

Sophie Featherstone was devastated after the demise of her beloved grandmother Pat, who raised her.

"I occasionally asked about my parents and Nan would tell me what happened with my mum, but she didn't know who my dad was," the Mirror quoted Sophie as saying.

The 19-year-old went into depression after losing her granny to cancer, and destiny struck when she checked her Facebook account while visiting a friend in Liverpool.

She had received a message from unknown woman, called Sarah Prescott, which said: "Your dad would love to get in touch with you."

Sophie began chatting with Sarah, who revealed her partner, Paul, always suspected that the teen was his daughter and when the two met there were no grounds for doubt.

She also met her half-brother, Jessee, 19 months, and Sarah's children Kerry-Ann, 16, and Scott, 12, from a previous relationship.

Sophie also found that she had five half-brothers and half-sisters from Paul's previous relationships.

Sophie's mum Debbie Featherstone, mum of Jamie, 16, Katie, 15, Ffion, 12, Jack, 10, Bailey, four, Madison, two and Declan, one, and eight months pregnant with her ninth child, soon heard the news about the reunion and her daughter initiated a contact using Facebook again.

Sophie said: "I was at my dad's and saw the message from Katie saying 'Mum would love to see you'.I was so happy I almost cried. I thought my mum and I would never meet again because too much time had passed to ever be a family again."

Sophie added: "It was like history repeating itself, we arranged a meeting and I moved in with her and her family for a couple of weeks. It has been incredibly easy to bond with everyone here, I already feel part of the family." (ANI)

Source: news.yahoo.com

Was Mr Lal Bahadur Shastri murdered?

Was India's third prime minister, Lal Bahadur Shastri, murdered? Officially, the diminutive leader died of a heart attack in a dacha in Tashkent, hours after he signed a peace agreement with the Pakistani president, Ayub Khan, on 11 January 1966, some four months after the end of the second war between the two neighbours. But if you believe surviving members of Mr Shastri's family and an enthusiastic Delhi-based journalist, Mr Shastri was possibly poisoned.

What has added grist to the conspiracy mill is the Indian government's refusal to declassify a document it has in its possession pertaining to Mr Shastri's death. In response to a right to information request by the enterprising Anuj Dhar, a journalist and a self-proclaimed "declassification enthusiast", the prime minister's office said that making public that document could "harm foreign relations, cause disruption in the country and cause breach of parliamentary privileges". Totally non-controversial in his life, Mr Shastri has become controversial in death. I did a little digging around and found that most of the better-known accounts of Mr Shastri's death have raised no doubts - death by heart failure. In his magisterial India After Gandhi, historian Ramachandra Guha writes Mr Shastri "died in his sleep of a heart attack".

In her biography of Indira Gandhi, Katherine Frank writes that after he "went to bed in the early hours of the 11th January, Mr Shastri had a fatal heart attack".

The most vivid account is in my dog eared copy of the long out-of-print book India, The Critical Years by veteran Indian journalist Kuldip Nayar. He was part of the prime minister's travelling press corps to Tashkent.

Mr Nayar writes that the Indian prime minister was already a heart patient, having suffered two attacks. He had had a hectic day, holding talks with the Russian premier, Alexey Kosygin - the Russians having brokered the pact - and his officials and had had very little sleep. "That evening," writes Mr Nayar, "I met by chance his personal physican Dr RN Chugh, who accompanied him. I asked him how Shastri was standing the strain. He looked up to the sky and said: 'Everything is in the hands of God'." Mr Nayar does not elaborate. Mr Nayar then proceeds to describe the fateful night in Agatha Christie-like detail. Since he was to travel in the prime minister's airplane early next morning to Kabul en route to Delhi, he retired to bed early an hour before midnight. "I must have been dozing when someone knocked at my door and said: 'Your prime minister is dying.' A Russian lady was waking up all the journalists," writes Mr Nayar.

A group of journalists then sped to Mr Shastri's dacha from the hotel. On arriving, Mr Nayar found a grief-stricken Mr Kosygin standing on the verandah. "He could not speak and only lifted his hands to indicate Shastri was no more."

When Mr Nayar went in, he found Dr Chugh being questioned by a group of Soviet doctors through an interpreter. In the next room Mr Shastri lay still on his bed. The journalists emptied the flower vases in the room and spread them on the prime minister's body. Mr Nayar also noticed an overturned thermos flask on a dressing table some 10 feet away from Mr Shastri's bed and wondered whether the prime minister had struggled to get to open it to get water. "His slippers were neatly placed near the bed; it meant that he walked barefoot up to the dressing table in the carpeted room," Mr Nayar writes. Mr Nayar then pieces together the events leading up to Mr Shastri's death - of how the prime minister reached the dacha around 10 pm after a reception, chatted with his personal staff and asked his cook Ram Nath to bring him food "which was prepared in the dacha by the Russians". It gets more interesting from here. "In the kitchen there was a Soviet cook helped by two ladies - both from the Russian intelligence department - and they tasted everything, including water, before it was served to Mr Shastri," Mr Nayar writes. Remember this was at the height of the Cold War and India-Pakistan hostilities and the security paranoia was extreme.

As Mr Shastri tucked into a frugal spinach and potato curry meal, he received a call from a personal assistant in Delhi and sought the reaction to the Tashkent agreement back home. Then he spoke to his family in Delhi. He asked his eldest daughter, Kusum, about how she had found the peace pact. "She replied, 'we have not liked it'," writes Mr Nayar. "He asked 'what about her mother?' She too had not liked the declaration, was the reply given." A crestfallen Mr Shastri, according to Mr Nayar, then remarked: "If my own family has not liked it, what will the outsiders say?"
Mr Nayar writes that the prime minister's wife did not come on the line to talk despite many requests - a contention that is disputed by many of his surviving family members. This upset Mr Shastri. "He began pacing up and down the room... For one who had had two heart attacks earlier, the telephone conversation and the walking must have been a strain," he writes. Then his staff gave him milk and some water in the flask. Around 1.30 am, his personal assistant Sahai, according to Mr Nayar, saw Mr Shastri at his door, asking with difficulty, "Where is the doctor?"

The staff woke up Dr Chugh, while the prime minister's staff, assisted by Indian security men, helped Mr Shastri walk back to his room. "If it was a heart attack - myocardiac infarction, and obstruction of blood supply to the heart muscles, as the Soviet doctors said later - this walk," writes Mr Nayar, "must have been fatal." Mr Nayar writes - presumably from an eyewitness account by the personal assistant - that Mr Shastri began coughing "rockingly", touched his chest and became unconscious. Dr Chugh arrived soon after, felt the prime minister's pulse, gave an injection into the heart, tried mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, but to no avail. More doctors arrived. They found Mr Shastri dead. The time of the death was 1.32 am. Talk about foul play began as soon as the body arrived in Delhi. Mr Nayar says the prime minister's wife asked him why Mr Shastri's body had turned blue. He told her that when "bodies are embalmed" they turn blue. Mrs Shastri was not convinced. She asked about "certain cuts" on Mr Shastri's body. Mr Nayar told her he hadn't seen any. "Apparently, she and others in the family suspected foul play," Mr Nayar writes.

They still do. I went to meet Sidharth Nath Singh, the prime minister's grandson and a senior member of the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, recently to hear the family side of the story. He told me that Mr Nayar's account of the telephone conversation that Mr Shastri had with his family members that night was inaccurate, and that he HAD spoken to his wife. Mr Singh, who was two years old when his grandfather died, says that one person was detained on "suspicion of poisoning Mr Shastri", but was released. Mr Nayar's book has no mention of this.

"Knowing the truth is important for our family. The truth has never been out," Mr Singh told me. Then he talked about the cold war politics of the day, and who would have gained from poisoning Mr Shastri who had served as prime minister for only 19 months: a foreign power, political rivals. Some of it sounds remotely credible; other bits outlandish. But Mr Singh and the nation deserve to know why the government is holding the paper about Mr Shastri's death back. How will it imperil our foreign relations? With whom? India has a notoriously stodgy reputation as far as declassifying historical documents is concered; the state almost encourages a statist historiography. The truth should be out and the controversy should be buried, once for and all.

Source: bbc.co.uk

Yoga can Cure Swine Flu: Baba Ramdev

Amidst growing concern on the increasing spread of the H1N1 virus in India, renowned yoga guru Baba Ramdev prescribed yoga as a cure for the disease.
Talking to reporters here on Tuesday, Baba Ramdev advised people to practice yoga as a preventive measure against swine flu.
"People with strong immune system cannot be affected with swine flu. Through yoga and pranayma, you can keep your immune system particularly the respiratory system strong," he added.
He further said that the media was creating panic among the people.
"There is a lot of panic among the people. The news channels round the clock make it breaking news every time there is a death due to swine flu," said Ramdev.
The yoga guru also advised people to use facemasks while in crowded places.
However, a doctor and a 29-year-old woman succumbed to the deadly swine flu virus in Nashik and Pune respectively on Wednesday taking the country's' swine flu death toll to 14.
With the increasing number of swine flu cases, the Central Government has unveiled fresh measures to control the spread of disease by allowing private labs to conduct tests and private hospitals to provide treatment.

Source: littleabout.com

Tulsi can help keep Swine Flu Away: Ayurvedic Experts

Use “Nilgiri Oil” (Eucalyptus oil) drops on handkerchiefs and masks as one of the preventive measures against Swine Flu (NIV) National Institute of Virology.

Not just Tulasi, Vitamin C rich substances are known to boost immunity. So taking hot Lemon or Amla (Indian Gooseberry) powder mixed with hot water would be very helpful.

Wonder herb Tulsi can not only keep the dreaded swine flu at bay but also help in fast recovery of an afflicted person, Ayurvedic practitioners claim.

"The anti-flu property of Tulsi has been discovered by medical experts across the world quite recently. Tulsi improves the body's overall defence mechanism including its ability to fight viral diseases. It was successfully used in combating Japanese Encephalitis and the same theory applies to swine flu," Dr U K Tiwari, a herbal medicine practitioner says. Apart from acting as a preventive medicine in case of swine flu, Tulsi can help the patient recover faster. "Even when a person has already contracted swine flu, Tulsi can help in speeding up the recovery process and also help in strengthening the immune system of the body," he claims. Dr Bhupesh Patel, a lecturer at Gujarat Ayurved University, Jamnagar is also of the view that Tulsi can play an important role in controlling swine flu. "Tulsi can control swine flu and it should be taken in fresh form. Juice or paste of at least 20-25 medium sized leaves should be consumed twice a day on an empty stomach." This increases the resistance of the body and, thereby, reduces the chances of inviting swine flu," believes Patel.

Symptoms of Swine Flu

The Symptoms of Swine Flu or H1N1 flu virus in people are same to the symptoms of seasonal fluwhich include headache, fever, sore throat. some people also reported vomiting and diarrhea. The main Symptoms of Swine Flu in Children are given below:

1.Not drinking enough water or other fluids

2.Fast breathing or problem to take breath

3.Severe or persistent vomiting

4.Being so irritable that the child does not want to be held

5.Bluish or gray skin color

6.Not waking up or not interacting

7.Flu-like symptoms, fever, cough

Symptoms of Swine Flu in adults are given below:

1.Pain or pressure in the chest or abdomen

2.Difficulty breathing or shortness of breath

3.Severe or persistent vomiting

4.Sudden dizziness

5.Flu-like symptoms improve but then return with fever and worse cough

6.Confusion

Six more Die of Swine Flu, India Toll Climbs to 17

Pune/Mumbai/New Delhi, Aug 12: India's swine flu toll rose to 17 Wednesday as six people succumbed to the H1N1 virus in quick succession in Maharashtra, forcing authorities to shut down educational institutions and public places in Mumbai for a week.

Wednesday saw the highest number of six deaths for a single day since the first victim, Reeda Sheikh, 14, died in Pune Aug 3.

In New Delhi, the health ministry asked the states to take strict action against those hoarding face masks and illegally selling Tamiflu, an anti-influenza drug.

In Maharashtra, where swine flu has claimed 13 lives, the state government was forced to announce closure of all educational establishments in state capital Mumbai for a week from Thursday and multiplexes for three days.

However, offices and malls will remain open, an official clarified.

While five people died due to swine flu in Pune, called the 'epidemic city', the sixth death was reported from Nashik.

The five who died in Pune were Gautam Shelar, a 48-year-old driver, Nita Meghani, 50, Babu Genu Kuland, a school student, Sanjay Mistry, 35, and Shravani Deshpande, 29, a Maharashtra Swine Flu Control Room official said.

They all died at the Sassoon Hospital, which has been handling very serious cases of swine flu in this second largest city of Maharashtra.

Shelar was admitted to the hospital in a critical condition three-four days ago and died around 4.45 p.m. His death came barely an hour after Meghani died.

Babu died in the same hospital at about 11 a.m. A resident of Pimpri town near here, Babu was hospitalised three days ago in a serious condition, according to Pune Municipal Corporation (Health Department) chief S.R. Pardeshi.

Mistry, another Pimpri resident, died in the wee hours of Wednesday. He was hospitalised Sunday in a critical condition and put on ventilator.

Within hours, Deshpande too died of the A(H1N1) influenza around 3 a.m. She had been hospitalised three days ago with pneumonia and later was found to be suffering from swine flu. She was then put on ventilator.

Around the same time, Rakesh Gargunde, a doctor with the Civil Hospital in Nashik city, also succumbed to swine flu virus, said civil surgeon A.D Bhal Singh.

While Maharashtra accounts for 13 deaths - 10 in Pune, two in Mumbai and one in Nashik - one death each has been reported from Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Chennai and Thiruvananthapuram.

As many as 115 people were found positive Wednesday - 61 in Pune, 24 in Mumbai, 10 in Bangalore, eight in Delhi, four in Ahmedabad, three each in Kolkata and Hyderabad, and one each in Shillong and Goa, the health ministry said.

The new cases take the total number of affected people in the country to 1,193 - 588 of whom are at various stages of recovery, it said.

Maharashtra, the most affected state, was preparing for the next stage of its battle against the flu.

'The government has ordered the closure of all schools, colleges and other educational institutions in the city (Mumbai) from tomorrow till Aug 20,' a Maharashtra government official told IANS. Suburban trains in the western megapolis would, however, function as normal.

Reeling under the growing menace of swine flu, the state government admitted the disease was progressing, necessitating a change in strategy to counter it.

Now, the government plans to change its treatment process. Currently, Tamiflu is given after tests results, but it will be given at the initial stage itself, Additional Chief Secretary (Health) Sharvari Gokhale told mediapersons.

She said that 22 private hospitals in Mumbai and nine in Pune have come forward to offer treatment facilities for swine flu patients since the government hospitals were getting overcrowded.

Many private schools in Maharashtra have already closed down for two days -- Wednesday and Thursday. Thereafter, Friday, Saturday and Sunday are official holidays.

With reports of hoarding of masks and illegal sales of Tamiflu tablets, the union health ministry held a meeting in New Delhi and also issued guidelines for private labs, making it clear that only those that comply with bio-safety facility would be allowed to do the tests.

In New Delhi, Joint Secretary (Health) Vineet Chawdhry said there was no need for all to wear the N95 mask, which is only for those who are either visiting a testing centre or are affected with the influenza A(H1N1) virus.

He also asked the state governments to ensure no one was selling Tamiflu or hoarding masks.

'The state governments have to come with a heavy hand on all those hoarders and black-marketers. This is a public health emergency crisis in the country. Citizens from all walks of life have to cooperate,' he added.

He said that people should avoid crowds or crowded places during the Hindu festival of Janmashtami Aug 14 so as not to catch the virus.

Gearing up to fight the flu, the Delhi government also issued directions to all private hospitals under the Epidemic Act to reserve 10 beds each for the flu patients.

Source: News.yahoo.com